I don't know, you have some specific tastes in games, good thing I don't and enjoy all my vita games.The screen really is awesome( playing in a store isn't quite the same) and the OS grows on you.

Super Stardust Delta is one my favorite games of the year and it's pretty damn simple, it just looks so good on the screen and it's great for pick up and play.

Also the ability to suspend any game or app instantly without even having to press pause in the game is amazingly convenient.

The future isn't certain though so I wouldn't highly recommend getting one. I'm just waiting to get that Need for Speed: Most Wanted on it! And Persona 4 Golden because I still haven't played that.

You should definitely wait a couple years. To see if the Vita is even still around at that point, and since all the games you actually want to play aren't even close to being released yet.

@BlackLagoon said:

@Contrarian: In Japan there's Tales of Innocence R and Ys Celceta: Sea of Trees, and given that Monster Hunter on the 3DS hasn't sold anywhere near what it did on the PSP, I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom pulls a Resident Evil 4 and announces Monster Hunter Portable 4th for the PSP and Vita some time in the near future. Remains to be seen what gets brought over though.

If only I could read Japanese, there would be so many games I would just simply import. I just wish they added subtitles in English for every game not likely to get a full translation.

@Ubersmake said:

Probably not. I mean, you outlined it pretty well up there. And like you said, you want more games and a price drop before justifying the purchase. Me? I actually just bought one a few weeks ago, when Amazon had their Gravity Rush promotion (which I was legitimately interested in). I'm looking forward to RPGs, too. In the Vita's case, Persona 4, Ys IV (I think that's what Celceta's replacing?), and Trails in the Sky. I also had a PSP, but I didn't have a lot of RPGs for it, so the Vita is also a sort of PSP+ for me. My PSP's battery lasts for little more than an hour now, and the screen suffers from some noticeable ghosting. So the Vita is now a Tactics Ogre machine, along with anything else I'm interested in that I never played on the PSP, like the Ys games, and Valkyria Chronicles 2. For the record, I'll also likely get a 3DSXL whenever Fire Emblem gets released. Along with Bravely Default, which is still a terrible name no matter how many times you say it. In the end, it's always about the games, so go where the ones you actually want to play are.

Fire Emblem is THE game I am waiting for on the 3DS to finally have that AAA+ game I desperately want.

@Deusx said:

Get a 3DS.

I have one .... no, I have 2, a PAL and NTSC (Mmmmm purple one), plus I am getting my 3rd, the XL in about a week.

@Coafi said:

The Vita is not for you, at least not yet. My suggestion, wait a year or so and grab it at the moment you see a good price and at least 5 games that will keep you playing it.

I got one, just because I really liked what I saw and I never had a PSP, so right now I'm playing PSP games (Persona 3) and I got Sound Shapes too. I play my Vita almost every night, I love it.

I will do what I did with the PS3 ... buy clearance games I really want even though I don't have a console. Then when I finally get one, I have my instant library of sorts. I had PS3 games for 2 years prior to getting the PS3 and had about 10 of them already when I finally bought the PS3.

@BlackLagoon said:

@Anupsis said:

@Contrarian: Monster Hunter 4 is currently a 3DS exclusive. Unless they do a spin off scratch that off the list.

The biggest sellers in the Monster Hunter franchise have been the Portable/Freedom spin-offs on the PSP. Capcom putting the main series on Nintendo consoles doesn't really mean there won't be more of them on Sony consoles.

You are spot on. The 3DS and Wii sales of Monster Hunter never went close to the PSP sales in Japan. I am sure it will happen, even if it is another port of the Wii game, to test the waters, but I assume they are waiting for some decent sales of the console before investing in something new,

@BlackLagoon said:

@Anupsis said:

@Contrarian: Monster Hunter 4 is currently a 3DS exclusive. Unless they do a spin off scratch that off the list.

The biggest sellers in the Monster Hunter franchise have been the Portable/Freedom spin-offs on the PSP. Capcom putting the main series on Nintendo consoles doesn't really mean there won't be more of them on Sony consoles.

Yeah

@Anupsis said:

@Contrarian: Monster Hunter 4 is currently a 3DS exclusive. Unless they do a spin off scratch that off the list.

The biggest sellers in the Monster Hunter franchise have been the Portable/Freedom spin-offs on the PSP. Capcom putting the main series on Nintendo consoles doesn't really mean there won't be more of them on Sony consoles.

The Vita is not for you, at least not yet. My suggestion, wait a year or so and grab it at the moment you see a good price and at least 5 games that will keep you playing it.

I got one, just because I really liked what I saw and I never had a PSP, so right now I'm playing PSP games (Persona 3) and I got Sound Shapes too. I play my Vita almost every night, I love it.

@Contrarian: Monster Hunter 4 is currently a 3DS exclusive. Unless they do a spin off scratch that off the list. I love how they are doing whatever they can to avoid bringing it to hd consoles.

Get a 3DS.

Probably not. I mean, you outlined it pretty well up there. And like you said, you want more games and a price drop before justifying the purchase.

Me? I actually just bought one a few weeks ago, when Amazon had their Gravity Rush promotion (which I was legitimately interested in). I'm looking forward to RPGs, too. In the Vita's case, Persona 4, Ys IV (I think that's what Celceta's replacing?), and Trails in the Sky.

I also had a PSP, but I didn't have a lot of RPGs for it, so the Vita is also a sort of PSP+ for me. My PSP's battery lasts for little more than an hour now, and the screen suffers from some noticeable ghosting. So the Vita is now a Tactics Ogre machine, along with anything else I'm interested in that I never played on the PSP, like the Ys games, and Valkyria Chronicles 2.

For the record, I'll also likely get a 3DSXL whenever Fire Emblem gets released. Along with Bravely Default, which is still a terrible name no matter how many times you say it.

In the end, it's always about the games, so go where the ones you actually want to play are.

@Contrarian: In Japan there's Tales of Innocence R and Ys Celceta: Sea of Trees, and given that Monster Hunter on the 3DS hasn't sold anywhere near what it did on the PSP, I wouldn't be surprised if Capcom pulls a Resident Evil 4 and announces Monster Hunter Portable 4th for the PSP and Vita some time in the near future. Remains to be seen what gets brought over though.

Yea, the 3DS really seems like the new home of the JRPG. I certainly wouldn't get a Vita if that was where my interests lied. I think Level 5 has some games announced for Vita, but it remains to be seen if they will be released outside of Japan. tri-Ace had their latest game on 3DS so nothing announced on that side either. Honestly I wouldn't expect much from most Japanese studios for the Vita until it picks up and that will only come if Sony really pushes things.

@MikkaQ said:

You say you want Monster Hunter, Tales games, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, but those have all been popping up on Nintendo's side lately. There's one of every one of those for the 3DS except Dragon Quest, which does have a DS release.

Looking at the games you're looking forward to and your thoughts on the hardware and reservations about the price, it seems you've answered your own question.

In the end I certainly did answer my own question. I didn't really know what was available or coming when I started writing this up, so much of it didn't sink in until I was typing it up. Price and hardware I did have preconceived attitudes though. The games really were a personal disappointment. I doubt that many gamers, especially here share my fixation with JRPG for my fun, so I am certainly not talking for anyone else.

You say you want Monster Hunter, Tales games, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, but those have all been popping up on Nintendo's side lately. There's one of every one of those for the 3DS except Dragon Quest, which does have a DS release.

Looking at the games you're looking forward to and your thoughts on the hardware and reservations about the price, it seems you've answered your own question.

@Sploder said:

Well despite the fact that I got one for free I would probably just buy one for P4G. Though I still haven't shelled out for a memory card bigger than the 4gig I got it with because I would feel so bad about myself if I spent 80 quid on a 32gig memory stick, when I could get equivalent storage on a flash drive for less than half that.

Free ...... nice. I actually my first 2 PSP-1000 for free as well, so I had to buy some games for it. I got my 3rd Red PSP-3000 on clearance, brand new for $25 (store pricing error). Because Persona 4 is still a port, it isn't enough for me on is own.

Well despite the fact that I got one for free I would probably just buy one for P4G. Though I still haven't shelled out for a memory card bigger than the 4gig I got it with because I would feel so bad about myself if I spent 80 quid on a 32gig memory stick, when I could get equivalent storage on a flash drive for less than half that.

After reading the thread asking if the Vita had tanked, I thought to myself, "has it really?" and "am I even slightly interested yet?" So I thought I would investigate what it had and what conclusions I would draw as to adding it to my collection.

A little background first. I have a PS3 and I have 3 PSP consoles, with about 60+ UMD games. That makes me far from being a Sony or Sony handheld hater, but I assume my conclusion intuitively will be, it is not for me - yet.

The console itself:

I have held it and played it in a department store and to be honest, I didn't like how it looked, nor how it felt in my hand. My biggest criicism of the PSP all along was that I really disliked how it felt, so the Vita just continues that feeling. I am sure it is a high quality piece of equipment, with loads of power, nut I did find using the interface a bit of a pain, but with limited exposure, it may be a harsh judgement. The real problem is the price. Locally, it is $350, which is about $360US. That is a fair bit more than Americans are required to pay. Then there is the memory cards. That just exacerbates the problem.

Conclusion: Not at the current price. It is at the very least, $100 too much for me to get interested, A local price drop to $200-250 appears to be a long time coming.

Digital games:

I read a lot of people saying that they will get one when they have all the PS1 and PS2 games available for download. I ask myself why. Don't get me wrong, I like old games, but PS1 games have dated horribly and they tend to be too expensive. I have nearly 100 PS2 games and very few of them would intrest me enough to buy them again to play on a Vita. I didn't download any PS1 games for the PSP, so I am not starting now with the Vita. Also, with 60+ PSP games, there will be no buying any of those games again, I can keep playing them on the PSP, plus some of the prices for games are still as much as $60 to download locally. Also, digital only games are not normally of interest to me, so I don't really care what they have available.

Conclusion: Not interested in PS1, PS2, PSP or new digital only games. This area has no interest to me at all.

Retail Games available now:

So often I read about how awesome the launch titles of the Vita was. I don't recall a single game I was interested in. To be fair, I felt the same way about the 3DS, but I had greater confidence in what was coming, leading me to buy one within 3 months of launch. So what about the games available? I will look at the best games, according to Metacritic rating (from highest down) and give them an "Interest" score (out of 5):

Rayman Origins: Never been a fan and would rather get a console version if I did. Interest - 2/5

Mortal Kombat: Don't care for fighting games. Interest - 1/5

Gravity Rush: Don't care for it. Interest - 0/5

Lumines Electronic Symphony: Not my thing. Interest - 0/5

BazBlue Continuum Shift Extended: Have a PS3 game, that is enough for me. Interest - 1/5

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection: Tried Metal Gear, hated it. Interest - 1/5

Unchartered Golden Abyss: Tried 1 and 2, found them boring. Interest - 1/5

Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Not even interested in the PS3 games. Interest - 1/5

FIFA Football: Yawn. Interest - 0/5

WipeOut 2038: Didn't play much of my PSP one. Interest - 1/5

Disgaea 3 Absence of Detention: I have the PSP version and I love the series a lot. Willing to own it again. Interest - 3/5

Virtua Tennis 4 World Tour Edition: I don't mind a tennis game, but not excited. Interest - 2/5

MLB 12 The Show: Better than Football, but still not interesting. Interest - 1/5

Hot Shots Golf World Invitational: I enjoy arcade style golf. Interest - 2/5

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus: Never enjoyed the series. Interest - 1/5

Unit 13: A very average shooter .... yay! Interest - 0/5

Touch My Katamari: I do enjoy this quirky series. Interest - 3/5

Dynasty Warriors Next: No interest in the series. Interest - 1/5

F1 2011 - Love car racing, not F1 though. Interest - 1/5

LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7: A few years back maybe, now, not so much. Interest - 2/5

ModNation Racers Race Trip: I didn't much like my PSP one, so no. Interest - 1/5

LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes: I am a Marvel man, so not really. Interest - 1/5

Resistance Burning Skies: Absolutely not. Interest - 0/5

Then they fall away under a score of 60/100 and nothing there even remotely interests me.

Conclusion: I can only see 2 games that managed to make a interest score of 3/5, so for that is pretty grimm. On that basis, I couldn't even remotely justify becoming a Vita owner.

Upcoming Games:

LittleBigPlanet: I have the first PS3 one, plus the PSP version. I think I am done unless it does something decidedly more. Interest - 2/5

Ragnarok Odyssey: I could see me playing that. Interest - 3/5

Silent Hill Book of Memories: I like the series, but it depends what it brings that is good and different. Interest - 2/5

Assassin's Creed III Liberation: Didn't enjoy 1 and 2, so I can't be excited for this. Interest - 2/5

Streetfighter X Tekken: Not another fighting game ..... no. Interest - 1/5

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale: I am not excited for the roster of characters at all, Smash Bros is where I want to be, Maybe the PS3 version, cheap. Interest - 2/5

LEGO Lord of the Rings: Where will the LEGO series end? Love LotR though. Interest - 2/5

Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz: I am over this series. Interest - 1/5

Need For Speed Most Wanted: The Vita will always be a superior car racing console, as was the PSP. Prefer home console racing games though. Interest - 2/5

Zero Escape Virtue's Last Reward: Could be mildly interesting. Interest -2/5

Spy Hunter: No high expectations on this. Interest - 1/5

Persona 4 Golden: Now here we have something that excites me, even if I have the pS2 version. Interest - 4/5

Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified: Not even remotely. Interest - 0/5

Sly Cooper Thieves In Time: Never wanted to play this series, nothing has changed. Interest - 1/5

Soul Sacrifice: This sounds like it has potential. Interest - 3/5

Dragon's Crown: From Vanillaware ..... count me interested. One to watch. Interest - 4/5

Conclusion: With Persona 4 and Dragon's Crown on the list, I am still a long way shy of having enough good games to bring me in, especially at the current console price, but at least there is a small ray of light at the end of a very uninteresting tunnel for me to wander down.

What do I really want to get me to buy a Vita?

This is really where it is at. We are all different and it is the games that really interest us at a deep personal level that cause us to buy in. For me, this is what I really want if I am going to buy a Vita:

Monster Hunter: I love this series. It will happen.

Final Fantasy: Be it full remakes or new chapters in existing stories, I want some FF. More than anything, give me a new Tactics.

Valkyria Chronicles: I really loved this series, but I am not optimistic of any western release.

Kingdom Hearts: I still enjoy the series a lot.

Dragon Quest: All the great games are on Nintendo now, but any the series would be appreciated.

Tales of ..... : Any Tales games would be snapped up by me.

Star Ocean: Some new games in the series would be nice.

JRPG in general: Y's, Phantasy Star, Blue Dragon, Breath of Fire et cetera. I think you get what I like.

Summary:

I am all for owning a Vita, depsite my misgivings about how it feels and looks. The games are all that matters and to that end, it truly under delivers for me presently and in the near future. Plus, the price of the console and memory cards is a massive roadblock that no game can overcome. It has to drop at least $100 locally to get me in. It was the same for the PS3 - I wasn't buying it at $1000, I still wasn't at $700, nor $500, but when I saw it at $300 I was on board and I think it is a terrific machine, whilst still lacking a great library, in my view. I am figuring it may be Christmas 2013 before I realistically see it happening.